I had to abandon the rails for the first time since HK to get here, mainly due to the lack of foresight of the Soviet Regime with respect to future geographical and political changes when building their rail network. The direct line from Moscow to Warsaw goes straight through the middle of Belarus necessitating my diversion north to Riga and the train from Riga to here cuts a corner over Belarus. Belarus doesn't like foreigners, charges a fortune for transit visas and takes 10 days to issue them.

Warsaw has been dumped on by a few million tonnes of snow and the authorities are struggling against the odds to clear it and it's still snowing. Could be a change to make sown New Years Snow Angels. I just hope they haven't set up any fireworks early or they will go off like damp squibs.

It was a damp squib, someone must have told them that I was coming as they cancelled or decided not to have a public celebration. I took a dorm bed hoping to meet some people to celebrate with but found myself sharing with an Italian couple who decided to act like Italians and just wanted to get jiggy 24/7, they didn't even invite me to join in, how anti-social is that?

Happy New Year to one and all, this years mission is to be somewhere warmer this time next year, I want to be celebrating the new year in shorts and a t-shirt.